Old Westbury gets familiar police veteran as new top cop

Stuart Cameron, who previously led Suffolk's police force as acting commissioner and department chief, took an oath Tuesday as Old Westbury's top cop — exactly a year after retiring from his county job.

Cameron, 60, said after a year of traveling, spending time with family and doing some work for the U.S. Department of Energy in its Office of Radiological Security that he was ready to return to policing. 

“I’m not going back to work because I didn’t enjoy spending time with my family. I just feel that I’m that too young to fully retire,” Cameron told Newsday on Wednesday.

In his new role as the village's seventh police chief he will oversee a department of 25 officers, a sizable decrease from Suffolk’s nearly 2,500-officer force. His salary will be $270,000.

Cameron also is getting a pension through the state Police and Fire Retirement System, according to the SeeThroughNY database compiled by Albany think tank Empire Center for Public Policy. The state comptroller’s office couldn’t immediately confirm that or the pension amount late Tuesday. 

“The most important part of a police department is the personnel and I believe, from my interactions here, I think we have very high caliber people,” Cameron said. “That’s probably 95% of what you need to make any department tremendously successful.”

The police veteran said he'll leverage his 37 years of experience to help implement some policy changes, while focusing on upgrading technology in the department. He said the changes will give officers a chance to spend more time out policing in the village of nearly 4,300 residents.

“The number one responsibility of any government entity is keeping the people safe,” said Cameron, who also spoke of the importance of leveraging technology whenever possible.

“I’m a huge believer in intelligence led policing," the new chief added.

During his time in Suffolk, Cameron played a role in several high-profile cases, including the TWA Flight 800 crash in 1996, as a sergeant. He later coordinated the crime scene on Ocean Parkway after the discovery of the remains of murder victims at Gilgo Beach in 2010 — an infamous case that remains unsolved.

Cameron spent about seven months as acting Suffolk police commissioner in 2021 following the resignation of Geraldine Hart, who left that police force after three years to become Hofstra University's head of security.

Cameron became the Suffolk police force's chief of department in November 2015, after former chief James Burke was forced out in disgrace and later sentenced to federal prison for beating a handcuffed prisoner and attempting to cover it up.

Old Westbury Mayor Edward Novick said Cameron was among several candidates who took the civil service exam last March for the chief's position so the village could replace now-former Chief Robert Glaser.

He retired Tuesday after serving in the department for 34 years.

“He was an excellent individual that was very well respected. He came from our department and managed it well,” Novick said of Glaser, who couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday. 

Novick said with an increase in auto thefts, burglaries and other crimes in the North Shore community, the village was looking for a new chief who had the necessary background to lead the department.

“No one had the breadth and depth and skill set that Stuart Cameron had,” Novick said. “Stuart Cameron has run one of the largest police department in the United States.”

The mayor said he believes Cameron’s experience will help improve the department's efficiency and give members the tools and tactics to deal capably with any crime on the North Shore.